higthepig (#55),
Read your harrowing tale this morning - and had a fearful shock ! ...... Your "where are you now ?" follows set of initials that would identify me perfectly ! Thankfully, seems it was a 'she' - and "in the late '80s", which lets me out on both counts (I retired from Leeming in '72).
What's this "Hadleigh" Box? From time immemorial, these have been known as "Squawk Boxes", a perfect name for them, if I may say so; and your:
...for the old cottage next to the taxiway where we reared pheasants (another story)...
recalls a Thornaby tale from '51. Jack Derbyshire (wartime F/Eng) and the Station Adj., kept day-old chicks in his (the only) room in the old Thornaby Hall, keeping them warm with electric fires as there was no CH in the place. Just thought I'd mention it ....
Wasn't it risky to drop the tanks on the airfield ? Leeming is not all that far from the sea, didn't he have the fuel to get there and back ? And the decision to drop on the W. side seems strange, given that God knows how far they would richochet - and the Tower is on that side ! Whereas to the E. there was only the CA/DF and (much farther out) the AR-1/PAR head. Could be wrong .
And what was a Flt. Lt. (he or she) doing in Local ? Were there no more hairy old Masters or F/Sgts left in the Branch ? ......
"Smell the Avtur ? - you should've been at Driffield in the early '50s, mate ! Only place in the country for Meteor and Vampire conversion, all the mechs wore green "paraffin" rubberised overalls, and the (downwind) little town of Driffield had to get used to it.
Danny.